{"id":551659,"date":"2026-01-29T13:41:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T13:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/551659\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T13:41:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T13:41:11","slug":"klobuchar-among-senators-look-to-start-new-chapters-as-governors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/551659\/","title":{"rendered":"Klobuchar among senators look to start new chapters as governors"},"content":{"rendered":"

By MAYA SWEEDLER, Associated Press<\/strong><\/p>\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 There\u2019s increasingly one place that U.S. senators want to be \u2014 anywhere but Washington.<\/p>\n

Democrat Amy Klobuchar<\/a> of Minnesota became the fourth sitting senator to seek leadership of a home state in 2026 when she announced her campaign<\/a> on Thursday. That\u2019s the most in recent history, according to an Associated Press analysis of congressional retirements.<\/p>\n

She joins Colorado Democrat Michael Bennet<\/a>, Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn<\/a> and Alabama Republican Tommy Tuberville<\/a>, who are all doing the same thing.<\/p>\n

The increase in senators looking toward statehouses underscores how sharply the balance of political ambition has shifted away from Washington. Although the Senate was once seen as the capstone of a long political career or a premier perch for launching presidential bids, it has become increasingly stagnant and dysfunctional.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the allure of the governor\u2019s office?<\/p>\n

Governorships now offer what the Senate usually cannot \u2014 the ability to govern, build a record and shape a national profile.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody asks me, \u2018Why are you doing this?\u2019\u201d Tuberville recently told the AP. \u201cBecause I think I can do more good in that seat than I can in this one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"U.S.FILE \u2013 U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., speaks about plans to run for the governor of Alabama in 2026, May 27, 2025 at Byron\u2019s Smokehouse in Auburn, Ala. (AP Photo\/ John David Mercer, File)<\/p>\n

The four senators who have already announced their campaigns are part of a broader exodus from Congress\u2019 upper chamber. Eleven have announced their intent to retire next year, which includes nine in the final year of their term.<\/p>\n

Bennet has long voiced frustration at glacial progress in Washington, but his decision to run for Colorado governor still surprised many politicos in his home state.<\/p>\n

In an interview, he said there\u2019s no way to address problems like affordability from the Senate.<\/p>\n

\u201cDonald Trump\u2019s Washington, D.C. will never be responsive to those challenges,\u201d Bennet said. \u201cHe\u2019s literally hanging gold on the walls of the Oval Office.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bennet also noted that Trump, a Republican, has \u201cdeclared war\u201d on Colorado, vowing to make the state pay for continuing to imprison a county clerk who was convicted of breaking the law while trying to help prove the bogus claim that the 2020 election was mired by fraud. Trump, who lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden, also recently vetoed a water project intended to help the state\u2019s rural areas.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.FILE \u2013 Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., questions former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, President Donald Trump\u2019s choice to be the Director of National Intelligence, during the Senate Intelligence Committee hearings for her confirmation at the U.S. Capitol, Jan. 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo\/John McDonnell, File)<\/p>\n

The concerns reflect how national partisan battles have increasingly defined even state-level politics, which used to revolve around local issues and have less of a partisan tinge. Bennet and his Democratic primary rival, state attorney general Phil Weiser, have each argued they\u2019re best equipped to push back against Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very important to have people who understand those national fights and who won\u2019t cower in the face of that,\u201d Bennet said.<\/p>\n

Highest turnover in the Senate in more than a decade<\/p>\n

Tuberville, who was first elected in 2020, said he didn\u2019t think there\u2019s any common denominator among the senators running for governor.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, the reason I\u2019m going back is, I think I can do more in the short term than I can in the long term up here,\u201d he said. He added that, as governor, \u201cyou\u2019re CEO of the state, and your vote counts more,\u201d while in the Senate, \u201cyou\u2019re one of 100.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if no more senators were to retire, this cycle would still have the highest turnover in the Senate in more than a decade. The last time more than a dozen senators left in one year was after the 113th Congress, when \u2014 in part due to President Barack Obama tapping senators for positions in his Democratic administration \u2014 13 senators retired, resigned or died.<\/p>\n

Senate becomes \u2018a more noxious place for lawmakers\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a push and a pull factor,\u201d said Matt Dallek, a political historian at George Washington University. \u201cThe push factor is the Senate in particular has become a more noxious place for lawmakers, because all the downsides to serving in public office and in the Senate are no longer mitigated in a significant way by the upsides of passing legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing governor, aside from the obvious fact that you\u2019re chief executive as opposed to one of 100, is increasingly alluring,\u201d Dallek said. \u201cAt the state level, a lot more can get done. Often states have to balance their budgets, they need to work on bipartisan legislation, and I think that there\u2019s a sense among lawmakers that it\u2019s in the states \u2014 these so-called labs of democracy \u2014 where governance is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

He pointed to Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas and Gov. Ron DeSantis in Florida, both Republicans, as examples of governing templates on topics ranging from immigration to cultural issues.<\/p>\n

According to the U.S. Senate Historical Office, 22 senators have served as governors after leaving the Senate since the direct election of senators began in 1913. Of those, seven moved directly to the governor\u2019s mansion from the U.S. Senate.<\/p>\n

Most recently, Mike Braun of Indiana won his state\u2019s governor\u2019s race<\/a> in 2024 while serving as the state\u2019s junior senator.<\/p>\n

Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti in Washington and Nick Riccardi in Denver contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By MAYA SWEEDLER, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 There\u2019s increasingly one place that U.S. senators want to be…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":551660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,3666,1582,276,9702,68196,3549,7264,242023,17113,67,586,132,5230,68,21150,2969],"class_list":["post-551659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-america","tag-amy-klobuchar","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-marsha-blackburn","tag-michael-bennet","tag-san-diego","tag-sandiego","tag-senators-running-for-governor","tag-tommy-tuberville","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-us-senate","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}